Parkland Residences @ Hougang

I was surprised that there was another DBSS sales coming up so fast after Trivelis@ Clementi. I will not repeat what I have written in my other posts on DBSS and you refer to my other posts for more information.

DBSS @ Hougang has been named Parkland Residences, and is located near Upper Serangoon Road. The indicative pricing and configuration are as follows:

3 room	67 sqm (136 units)	from $359,000 to $418,000	67 sq m: A/c Ledge; Living Room w/ Balcony Internal floor area: 59 sqm
4 room	92 sqm (272 units)	from $485,000 to $589,000	92 sq m: Big A/c Ledge; Living Room w/ Balcony Internal floor area: 79 sqm
5 room	109-112 sqm (272 units)	from $606,000 to $738,000	109 sq m: Big A/c Ledge; Living Room w/ Balcony; Master Bedroom w/ Balcony Internal floor area: 89 sqm 112 sq m: 2 A/c Ledges; Living Room w/ Balcony; Master Bedroom w/ Balcony Internal floor area: 96 sqm

You can take a look for more information here.Compared to DBSS @ Clementi, the pricing for Parkland Residences is much more affordable and the internal floor plan is also bigger. At the very least, the 5-room flat is slightly bigger than a normal HDB 4-room flat, something you find quite rare among DBSS for some reason. As usual there are built-in wardrobes, kitchen cabinets and appliances, air-conditioning system, etc. What caught my eye was that there's a gas water heater in addition to the gas supply to the kitchen appliances.

Based on the floor plan, it seems that there are suggested study areas even for the 3-room flats. It does makes you wonder how small the flat is though. For the biggest 5-room flat, there are also 2 air-con ledges and 4 bedrooms including the master bedroom. There also flat types with higher ceilings for the living/dining room area, even for the 3-room flat. I like the interior design though at it is all squarish in shape. No weird corners, but the balconies as usual still looks big to me.

According to the map, the DBSS is just behind Punggol park, which makes it quite far away from the nearest MRT station, which is Hougang MRT (~1km away). The location to me though is smack right in-between Buangkok and Hougang station. That will explain the relatively cheaper pricing. However, it still near many schools, Hougang Central (Hougang Mall, etc) and of course Punggol Park.

The Centrale8 post includes some of the calculations I did to see if it fits into my affordability matrix so I will not repeat it here. Although at first glance, the room looks quite big but as usual, the big air-con ledges and balconies are taking up quite a bit of space, leaving you with a much smaller interior area. If you're getting the normal flat units that do not have high ceiling, the psf pricing ranges around 650psf. For the addition psf you're paying over and above a normal HDB flat, you can renovate your house to make it look even more spectacular.

DBSS to me, is always a big mistake made by HDB. A public housing project (and forever will be, unlike EC) sold with pricing like a private property. I guess you know what's my recommendation.